Flood Currents Frozen in Stone

Seventy miles north of the Grand Canyon is the spectacularly beautiful Wave at Paria Canyon. This unique landform looks like a wave of the sea, frozen in stone. With such stunning colors and shapes, it’s no wonder “the Wave” has appeared on the cover of many road atlases and books, and has been featured in numerous documentaries.

Located in a wild and remote region of the Western United States, this strange formation swirls with controversy. How old is this place? How was it formed?

The Wave is located above the Vermillion Cliffs near Kanab, Utah. These cliffs form one of the “steps” in the Grand Staircase north of Grand Canyon. Geologists agree that the rocks in the Grand Staircase once extended over the whole Grand Canyon area, but they were washed away during massive flooding. What catastrophic forces produced these layers and then washed them away?

Geologists who reject the Bible’s account of earth history believe these layers were originally sand dunes, laid down in dry conditions over a long period of time. But the global Flood as recorded in Genesis provides a much more reasonable explanation for such massive formations. Creation geologists believe huge sand waves were piled up and laid down deep under the ocean water. The fast currents then created tell-tale features, known as cross beds or “striations,” with the steep cut-offs we see today.